Good reading at The Reading Experience (always, but) in this post called Blind Alleys expanding on Steve Mitchelmore’s quote regarding Kafka’s sense of tying in narrative through motif, imagery and concepts, versus the clues cluttering the crime novel that point directly to a solution or revelation of a prediicament exposed in the beginning of the story.
It does in fact bring to mind the begonias and gypsy potions of Marquez’s 100 Years of Solitude versus the quilting and colors of Atwood’s Alias Grace, and each author’s technique of using the standard elements of writing to enhance or progress the tale, to reach a conclusion, or to help understand itself.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology